Archive

The crash in oil prices has truly reached shocking levels at this point. Oil prices which were trading above the triple-digit mark only months ago, but have now given up gains to gravitational forces and are now hovering around the five-year low of $65 a barrel. Read more…

Ron Rowland: This week marks the beginning of the sprint to the finish line of 2014. Yesterday, our country held its annual thanks. Ironically, the day after we give thanks for everything we have, we are encouraged to spend lavishly on gifts and things we do not have. Read more…

After a sluggish Q1 with flat earnings on 3.3% revenue growth, retailers started showing strength from Q2. The improvement was far from great as earnings rose 2.6% on 5.5% higher revenues and some sector bellwethers Read more…

Doug Short: The Advance Retail Sales Report released this morning shows that sales in August rose 0.6% (0.58% at two decimals) month-over-month, up from 0.3% in July (an upward revision from 0.0%). Core Retail Sales (ex Autos) Read more…

Morpheus Trading: Following through on Wednesday’s accumulation day, stocks rallied higher across the board, with a few major averages closing in on major resistance. The S&P 500 stopped just shy of the 50-day MA and prior range lows, while the Nasdaq Read more…

Doug Short: The Advance Retail Sales Report released this morning shows that sales in May rose 0.3% month-over-month, down from 0.5% in April, which was an upward revision from 0.1%. Core Retail Sales (ex Autos) was up 0.1% in May, down from 0.4% in April, Read more…

Retailers saw a weak Q1 with total earnings from 97.3% of the sector’s total market capitalization reported so far being flat on 3.3% revenue growth. Earnings surprises were predominantly negative for retailers, with only 43.9% of the companies beating earnings estimates, Read more…

Morpheus Trading: Tuesday’s action was a definitely a negative for the current rally, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both suffering a clear distribution day. We continue to see the battle between the relative strength of the S&P 500 Read more…

Eric Dutram: As we all know, retail sales normally pick up on Black Friday, but this time retailers are displaying a rally ahead of Good Friday as well. U.S. retailers rejoiced the departure of the harsh winter in March as the group clocked a better-than-expected 1.1% Read more…

Doug Short: The Advance Retail Sales Report released this morning shows that sales in March rose 1.1% month-over-month, up from 0.7% in February, which was upwardly revised from 0.3%. Core Retail Sales (ex Autos) was up 0.7% in March following Read more…

The passing winter has finally cheered up the markets. The latest job data has topped the consensus estimate, manufacturing readings came in higher than expected, and the geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine seems to have taken a brief pause. Read more…

If the U.S. economy is getting better, then why are major retail chains closing thousands of stores? If we truly are in an “economic recovery”, then why do sales figures continue to go down for large retailers all over the country? Read more…

Moe Zulfiqar: Consumer spending is highly correlated with consumer sentiment. It makes sense that when consumers believe their jobs are in trouble or they won’t have enough money going forward, they pull back on their spending and only buy what they need. Read more…